Star Alliance Transatlantic Routes: 2015 Edition

A couple of years ago I produced a list of all the Transatlantic routes by alliance to help with searching for award trips and generally to enable those seeking to find new ways to get across the ocean. The data, unsurprisingly, became stale and things have changed like US Airways merging with American Airlines and shifting from Star Alliance to oneworld. And so, with the prodding of a few readers, I’ve updated the lists. And, based on feedback last time around, I’m also including routes crossing between South America and Europe and reaching a bit further east as well. I’m still ignoring Africa for these results, though.

Here is the latest collection of Star Alliance Transatlantic routes, gathered from timetables, published route maps and other sources. I’m pretty sure it is accurate though I’m guessing I missed one or three in there somewhere.

Air Canada sits comfortably in 3rd place amongst Star Alliance carriers in terms of total routes across the Atlantic. But things get a bit interesting when looking more closely because that number includes the Rouge routes. These are seasonal or non-daily and on a different aircraft configuration which is designed to compete in leisure markets more than to attract business travelers. Still, when looking to get across the ocean, there are a lot of options.

Avianca

Lufthansa is in second place in the alliance for total routes, including service from three hubs in Germany. Dusseldorf has seen a couple cuts but still offers service on key routes while Frankfurt is the main gateway and Munich sees a bit as well.

And, rounding out the alliance, United Airlines has nearly 60 transatlantic routes, though some are seasonal. Newark is the main gateway; O’Hare and Dulles combined have fewer routes than are served non-stop from Newark. And Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles combined serve fewer than either Dulles or O’Hare.